Film and Moving Image

The course is designed to introduce the qualities of film and the perspectives they might offer us. Through the study of selected films, short readings, lectures and discussion, this course will introduce the specific elements of film. In each session, we will read critical responses to a film we watch. Alongside our readings and screening, we will examine the film’s aesthetic techniques—from movement, montage, sound to narrative and point to view, to scale and color. We will ask how has film been understood, shaped by, and constrained by aesthetic and social practice? By the end of each session, we will have examined in-depth one film’s qualities, perspectives, and socio-historical significance. Over the course of this 10-week course, we will closely analyse audiovisual forms to explore the range of questions, issues and methods appropriate to understanding the broad history of film—major technological developments, aesthetic techniques, artistic movements, genres, and works.

This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and interpretation when dealing with film and other moving image media. Most importantly, the course aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written (creative projects are also encouraged). You will have opportunities to generate your own analysis of films and to share them with members of the group. By the end of his course, you should have a solid understanding of how film can be interpreted or “read” through close analysis.